Curses!

I can't believe that I have been checking my cousin Bree's blog regularly only to be tagged in one of these!?!?!?!??! I will entertain....hehehe

A--Attached or Single? Attached, coming up on 7 years!
B--Best Friend? John, Kathryn, Leslie
C-- Cake or Pie? Cake for me, but pie is a good substitute in an emergency situation.
D-- Day of Choice? Any day off.
E-- Essential Item? I don't know! I can't think of anything that I couldn't live without.
F--Favorite Color? browns
G-- Gummy Bears or Worms? No preference really....they generally make my teeth hurt!
H-- Hometown? I grew up in Pendleton, OR
I-- Indulgence(s)? I have to say, lately I have been indulging frequently. But, not in sweets/foods as usual. I have had some time off and have been indulging in being a vegetable. I have been doing things that I could not do if I were working and have rediscovered how AWESOME that is!
J-- January or July? This is a definite January. But only because I live in Houston.
K-- Kids? Not yet, but someday for certain!
L-- Life is Incomplete Without? My husband, family, close friends, laughing, crying, and loving.
M-- Marriage Date? July 7, 2001
N-- Number of siblings? one older bro and sis
O-- Oranges or Apples? I simply cannot choose between the two.
P-- Phobias or fears? Sometimes it feel like I am afraid of everything. When I go on runs outside on the sidewalk I am afraid that a car will drive off the road and impale me up against a brick wall or something. I am afraid to ride scooters. I am afraid of anything that involves likely pain/disability/slow painful death/dismemberment. I am afraid of screwing up at work. Apparently, I live in fear!
Q-- Quotes? "Life is Good" and Sleep is a wonderful thing" - Dad. "Wherever you go there you are" and "Alright! Let's smoke this joint!" - Mom. "Well, when I lived in the Ming Dynasty..." - Charlie. "I am a very small replica of several large water dwelling mammals!" - Chester
R-- Reason to Smile? I am still alive, well, happy, and blessed. I have a WONDERFUL family!!!!!
S-- Season? In Oregon I loved Spring, Summer, and Fall. In Houston, spring is torrential downpour. Summer is hot and muggy and hurricane season. Fall is nonexistent - the leaves don't fall off the trees like they do up north. So I guess that leaves winter which is generally pleasant and cheap (no heating or a/c necessary!)
U-- Unknown Fact? I peed my pants a lot. Like A LOT up to when I was in fourth grade. I vividly remember playing at recess and just having so much fun thinking I could hold it until recess was over. I mean who wants to waste recess on taking a pee!? Then, before I knew it, it was too late. I was crouched down sitting on my foot trying to keep from peeing my pants!! hehehe! Of course, I was usually unsuccessful. The good news is that none of my friends ever knew. SO, I escaped the torment and ridicule....except from my loving family who called me "pee bum". I think it was mostly the "boys" in the family. I know my mom never said that and I am pretty sure my sister didn't! We all laugh about it now!
V-- Very Favorite Store? I have to go with Banana Republic. Their clothes are so classic.
X-- Xray or Ultrasound? Seriously? What kind of question is that?! I don't get it. I am going to change this one to: Xray vision or the ability to be invisible? - I am going to have to go with invisible!
Y-- Your Favorite Food? Delicious things.
Z-- Zodiac? No. gemini.

Did anybody else notice that this skipped "W"?!

See the Resemblance?

Just for giggles, I thought some of you who know our pugs would get a kick out of this resemblance!

My Memorial Hermann Family

Recently, at work the big push has been "Customer Service". Apparantly, it is available for people to get online and look up "patient satsifaction" information when reseraching hospitals...so those with the power have decided to make it a top priority. A week or so after patients are discharged from the hospital they receive a survey in the mail about their stay....I know....just like at restaurant tables - "how was your service" only you just had surgery!!! Those with the power have decided that they would reward excellence in patient satisfaction. Recently, my floor was recognized for being "most improved"! Hehehe! It makes me chuckle a little. Hopefully next time we can get the "sustained exellence" award instead of the "we were kinda crappy, but now we are really good" award! Hahahaha! The only reason I am even talking about this boring stuff is to show you my Memorial Hermann Family. When you spend 40+ hours every week with people they kind of become like family and I recently celebrated my 1 year anniversary at this hospital. The group of us go through some really stressful times together.

So, here is a picture of my 4th Floor Telemetry Crew! Blue is Nurse, Red is Unit Clerk, Brown is Monitor Room (watching heart rhythm all day) and Purple is Nurse's Assistant. We were rewarded for our "most improved" patient satisfaction scores with none other than some candy bars!! I just had to laugh! What do we get for working our tails off, being verbally abused, going and going while eating one time for 30 minutes in a 12.5 hour period, holding all bodily functions hoping that sometime you will get a chance to empty your bladder, hearing your name called 45 times in an hour....??? Two candy bars and a piece of fruit. SO worth it! HA!

Of course you know, what makes it worth it is when your patient is sad that your day off is tomorrow. When you can make them smile or laugh in the middle of a terrible time in their life. When they tell you, you are really more like family than a nurse. When you discharge them, help them into their car and they say "Goodbye, I love you". Those are the real rewards.

Before and After...what an Improvement!

We got new counter tops! It was so easy. The plumbing thing got a little frustrating, but it is done now and it looks great! I am so excited! It makes me excited to do the dishes....I wonder how long that will last? Enjoy some before and after pictures!

Before...

After!!!!


Before...

After!!!

Before...

After!!!

And our PERSONAL FAVORITE??!!

NO MORE CUTTING BOARD GLUED TO THE COUNTER! HOORAY!

Thank you for playing.....

Padre Island Beach Trip

Hello!! A once promised blog is being delivered to the people at last! This weekend, John and I drove to Padre Island National Seashore which is south of Houston. We made very quick disorganized plans to camp on the beach and lest early Saturday morning. The National Seashore is one of the largest in the world, I think. It was about 60 miles of beach on the Gulf, but it's a pan-handle off Texas. Anyway, we drove our car right out onto the beach and set up camp arriving at about 11:00am. It was a beautiful day! A little breezy, but perfect for the beach. The breeze kept us all from being hot hot hot! I think it was in the 90s. Above is a picture of the beach that John took peeking up over a dune.

Here is a picture of my Coca Cola advertisement...

Chester was so happy all day. He was running all over the beach faster than a speeding bullet (well, fast for Chester). He was jumping through the water and playing in it. He was too afraid to go against the waves since they were about his height. He tried several times and got plunged under the waves making his whole face wet. So, we opted to carry him out a ways and let him ride the waves in! It was so cute! I think he thought he could swim really fast! He loved it. I love this above picture of him! He is so content, soaking wet and soaking in the sun.

Here is John looking hot in all of his scuba gear. He went out for a swim just to snorkel. He looks so cute! He loves to snorkel and brings all of his stuff anytime we go somewhere with water. When John was done snorkeling we were both pretty wiped out from the sun and running around with pugs. So, we got in our tent and laid down and took a nap. It was so nice to be away from anything that would occupy our attention and stress us out. When we got up from our nap the wind had picked up considerably. The sand was blowing into the tent and onto us. Every part of my body was covered in sand and I could not wipe it off because I was sweating from the heat and humidity! Plus after about an hour of sand blowing onto your skin, it starts to hurt! We had plans for John's cousin, who lives in Kingsville, to come find us on the beach and grill some food. We thought it would be too hard to start a primitive fire with the wind blowing that hard, plus the sand thing was really starting to make me grumpy! So, we packed up camp about 7 pm and drove out. On our way out, luckily, we passed by John's cousin Christina. We all decided to go to their house and grill there. I HAVE NO REGRETS AT ALL!!!! I was so happy to get to know one of John's cousins. We had so much fun with her and her husband! We grilled, and then Casey (Christina's husband) made a fire in their backyard (Kingsville is like Pendleton where you can do things like that) and we made smores! He actually had a "burn barrel" and I think that only people in my family may know what that is ......


Charlie made me promise not to post pictures of him on the beach. He didn't want people to see the evidence of him eating seaweed and sand, rolling in seaweed, being terrified of water, and vomiting up seaweed later. He had a lot of fun, but of course would "never behave like such an animal since he is of such sophisticated blood" (his words). So here is him laying down at Christina's house. He looks handsome!

The next morning, the amazement and wonder continued when Casey made us breakfast of none other than Chicken Fried Steak.....only the steak was DEER TENDERLOIN! Holy smokes deer is delicious and I love to be reminded of that! We also had biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. Yum yum! Thanks again Casey and Christina!! You really made our weekend great! Above is a picture of all of us that we took in their back yard.

After eating a yummy rancher-style breakfast, we got a tour of Kingsville (again, much like Pendleton). Then, instead of working hard on the ranch all day, we hopped in the car and sat....so as to allow the breakfast to better stick to the ribs. The road trip was beautiful and I may have been a little high from the food-induced coma. Above is a picture of some fields. The colors were so pretty and these fields were all over. I don't know what the crop was, but it was everywhere and pretty!

And, as you can see here. Someone was TIRED from a very busy day just being a dog at the beach. Please take a look at the massive folds up top and soft belly sticking out below. For those who do not know. Chester would never normally allow me to hold him like this. But on this day he SLEPT like this for about 15 minutes! Case closed the beach trip was a success for everyone! We had a blast getting away from the city!

Still here! (For those wondering)

Hello to the people who check my blog occasionally or regularly! I have been out of the blog world due to lack of pictures. I guess because I enjoy pictures the most in other blogs, I feel I shouldn't blog unless I have a picture and an event! Anyway, that is boring stuff. I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here and doing great! We will be going camping on the beach this weekend and I promise to take some pictures and blog about it upon my return! Pray that none of us get heat stroke, it's gonna be a hot one this weekend! In the meantime, since I can't blog without pictures...enjoy this picture of me and John. I enjoy it!

Tag....I am it?

Oh dear, I have been tagged and I am it. Here goes nothing!

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Dating a big jerk. Driving around Pendleton. Singing and playing the piano in choir. Spending all earned money on whatever I wanted. Not paying any bills...

What were you doing 5 years ago?

Starting nursing school. Married to a non-jerk. Living in Eugene, OR.

5 things on my to-do list today:
Haircut
Exercise
Walk Dogs
Clean, Clean, Clean
Inservice at work

5 snacks I enjoy:

Cookie dough
Candy
Cake
Yule log!
Ice Cream

3 Bad Habits:

The snacks I enjoy
Piddling around the house all day instead of being productive.
Bugging my husband (being a pest)

If I were suddenly a billionaire I would...

Pay off the school loans of myself and my brother and sister.
Take our whole family on a fun trip
Buy a fun house somewhere
Think really hard about how to spend or not spend the rest of it.

5 places I have lived:

Challis, ID
Pendleton, OR
Eugene, OR
Roseburg, OR
Houston, TX

5 jobs I have had:

Dairy Queen
Bi-Mart
Care-giver
Nurse's Assistant
Nurse

5 things people might not know about me:

I have 6 toes on my right foot
I have a birth mark in the shape of a whale on my back
I wear brown colored contacts, my eyes aren't really brown
I wear a wig. I went bald when I was 13.
I am wanted in 13 states for various crimes....